Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Timcho Mucunski said Thursday that the country’s top priority remains opening European Union accession talks and securing full membership as soon as possible.
“We are certainly following the discussion, as well as the various debates that exist, but at this moment our unfulfilled strategic, foreign policy priority of the state is the opening of negotiations for membership and as soon as possible full membership in the European Union,” said the FM.
Mucunski added that, from the aspect of the way decisions are made in the European Union, a consensus is needed for a possible change in the methodology or rules related to enlargement.
“According to what we are hearing, there are several different ideas about how certain member states or groups of member states, and even the European Commission, see the future of enlargement policy. But what is clear is that, at least at this moment, there is no consensus on any of these alternative solutions,” the minister added.
Commenting on the opposition’s stance, Minister Mucunski stressed that this was a political entity that changed the name of the country, promised additional constitutional amendments and made significant national concessions in order to progress towards the European path.
“Eight years after those concessions, that is, we are already approaching ten years, the country has still not started negotiations with the European Union. Therefore, the result of their policymaking is best seen through what they have done and what they have achieved,” noted Mucunski.
He added that SDSM as a political entity has absolutely no credibility to propose policies in the field of foreign policy.
“It would probably be more virtuous to apologize for all the mistakes in the past and give full support to the Government, which is trying to restore some of the positions of national dignity,” the FM stressed.
